Sound Lab

Sound Lab was founded by legendary designer Roger West in 1978 and produces some of the best reviewed, most popular electrostatic loudspeakers in the world. Utilizing patented technology, Sound Lab products incorporate custom parts, unique geometric principles, and robust electronic circuits to achieve their open, uncolored, spacious sound.

Notable Sound Lab products include the Sound Lab Majestic 945. This 104" tall, 39.75" wide tower speaker is said to capture the delicacy of rain in life-like clarity, while still being powerful enough to reproduce thunder claps.

Frequency response is a claimed 24 Hz to... ultrasonics. With a radiating area of 3,125 square inches, it's not surprising they weigh in at 216 pounds each.

Here's a tour of the best of today's flat and electrostatic speakers as well as some of the most historically important (or just crazy looking) speakers from the category.

The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

1. MartinLogan CLX
Built based on inspiration from the classic MartinLogan CLS speakers - these $25,000 hybrid electrostatics are to die for.

The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

2. Wisdom Audio Sage Series Planar Speakers
These modern in-wall or on-wall speakers have the open sound of electrostatic speakers but come with advanced room correction and the ability to bi-amp. Consider these the least likely audiophile speaker to cause a divorce. See future slides for the opposite effect.

The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

3. Magenpan MMG Speakers
These $600 speakers are a cult favorite even if the company purposefully picks the most frumpy looking women of the Midwest for models in their ads in audiophile print magazines. The company couldn't be more old school be it in their so-very-dated industrial design, their dealer model and beyond but people still love them. Despite having any meaningful bass, at $600 the MMGs are a most affordable way to get into thin speakers.

The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

4. King Sound
These flat speakers have better industrial design than Magnepans but don't pack the same history.

The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

5. Innersound Eros Mark III
Check out these audiophile speakers that seem to be borrowing from the design language of MartinLogan's hybrid electrostatic designs without the curved panels.

7. Silberstatic
Germans love electrostatic speakers and killer industrial design. Here's an example of both in one pair of speakers.

The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

8. Audiostatic
Here is a 40 year old design that is still being sold today from Audiostatic.

The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

9. Apogee Grands
If you are looking for the Lamborghini Countach of loudspeakers - you've found it with the Apogee Grands. In California, most pairs of this long out-of-business brand fell over in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

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The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

10. MartinLogan CLS
These classic speakers are highly collectable and nearly impossible to find. They are also nearly impossible to match to a subwoofer but that never stopped audiophiles from buying these gems.

The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

11. Magnepan Tympani
Can you believe 35 years later, Magnepan still makes speakers that pretty much look like this? Back in the 1980s - these folding screens were game changers if not divorce starters.

The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

12. Acoustat 3Acoustat speakers came in all shapes and sizes as long as they were huge. The company is long gone but they often were powered by Haffler amps back in their 1980 heyday.

The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

13. Acoutech
We went deep to find Acoustech (don't confuse with Acoustat) for this list of flat and electrostatic speakers.

The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

14. Sound Lab A3
Wilson and RBH get all the ink for speakers being made in Utah but what about the gigantic Sound Lab speakers? Reliability and form factor aren't the speaker's strong suit but the sound is alluring.

The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

15. Quad ESL 63
These electrostatic speakers have little to no bass and aren't really flat like a MartinLogan or Magnepan but in their day they sure had their fans including other top speaker designers and electronics companies as they make a sweet, sweet sound.

The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

16. Stax ESLF 81
Back into the way-back machine comes a pair of electrostatic speakers from Stax, a company known more for their exotic and lust-worthy headphones.

The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

17. Stax 407 Headphones
Speaking of Stax headphones, these aren't really flat speakers but they are so cool we couldn't leave them off the list. If you've never heard Stax headphones, you are in for a real treat.

The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

18. KLH Model 9
These are the electrostatic speakers that started the movement in the 1950s.

The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

20. Realistic Electrostatic III Tweeter
Need that electrostatic sound but have a pair of traditional, dynamic speakers? What is now Radio Shack's house brand had a solution for you back in the day - an extra tweeter.

The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

21. Cadence AudioCadence Audio brings the same electrostatic tweeter to the conversation with their speaker designs.

The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

22. ENIGMA Acoustics
Here is a modern day super tweeter company from Irvine California that's gaining popularity with audiophiles.

The World Is Flat and My Speakers Are Too

23. Final Speakers
Ahh, Final Loudspeakers. We saved the best story for last. The guy that ran the company went to jail for fraud. The guy who imported them has ties to Mark Schifter (the Bernie Madoff of the AV industry) and the company is now out of business. But the speakers are electrostatic and flat.